Iran tests its missile defense system while in Vienna the seventh round of talks on the nuclear deal, the first of the Raisi era, ends with nothing. Last night there was an explosion in Badroud, in central Iran, about 20 kilometers from the nuclear site of Natanz, which in April had been the subject of a sabotage: the blockage of the electricity grid in the complex caused, according to several analysts , a slowdown in activities of about 9 months.
The Iranian authorities explained the explosion by saying that it was a military exercise, although no such operation had been announced. “An hour ago, one of the region’s missile systems was tested for readiness on the ground, and there is nothing to fear,” Army spokesman Amir Tarikhani told state television. A “defensive missile was launched to test a rapid reaction to a possible attack”.
The test comes at a delicate moment in relations between Tehran and the international community. The talks in Vienna to try to save the 2015 agreement, which resumed last Monday, have stalled for now. Iran has presented two drafts, one on sanctions and the other on respecting its commitments, demanding that all restrictions on trade, exports and business introduced by the Trump administration – which ended the agreement in 2018 – be removed. The negotiators led by Ali Bagheri Kani, the deputy foreign minister, also ask that this process be verifiable, which means that Iran would return to respect the pacts only gradually and only after verifying that the sanctions have actually been canceled.
Iran, negotiation and resistance: Tehran’s strategy at the Vienna table on nuclear power
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A position that Europeans and Americans do not like. The United States, which participates only indirectly in the talks, accused Iran of blocking the negotiations on Saturday. Matches are expected to resume early next week, but deadlock seems difficult for now. Even Tehran’s request for guarantees from Biden that in the event of an agreement, things will not change with a future, new American administration is judged inadmissible in Washington.
Meanwhile, Iran, which has failed to fulfill its obligations established by the JCPOA, enriching uranium in percentages of up to 60%; it blocked inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency in part of the nuclear sites and put advanced centrifuges into operation in the Natanz complex.
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The site, together with that of Karaj, is the most sensitive point of the Iranian nuclear development program. On 11 April, the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization confirmed that an “accident” inside the complex had caused a “power outage”, accusing Israel of sabotage. Tehran credits Israel with several sabotage operations of its nuclear program, including the assassination of some scientists and physicists who worked there.
Israel has repeatedly reiterated its readiness to use any means, including force, to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, which would pose an essential threat to Jerusalem.
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